Does anybody have experience with soft, floppy, silicone cookware? I saw some for cheap, and was *this* close to picking some up just to play with. It looks intriguing just from a novelty perspective, and the salesman was touting its never, never, never sticks properties.

I don't have any "shaped" silicone cookware, but I do have a Silpat, which is a flat silicone pad that fits a cookie sheet or a jellyroll pan. It completely eliminates the chance of baked goods getting scorched on the bottom before the whole thing is cooked.

I have replaced almost all of my metal bakeware with silicone. This stuff is great! You don't get exactly the same browning as with metal, but I think it's just as crispy. I love the muffins without the muffin cups - they're crispy around the bottom, and you can deform the pan around them to get them out. I also bake all our bread in silicone loaf pans. This is great, because there again, you can bend the pan to get the bread out, so no more lost corners.

Another advantage is that I have no fewer than 8 pieces of it crammed into a little corner of a cabinet.

Three caveats: the larger (9x5) loaf pans will deform a little at the sides if they're full, so you get a more squat, wider loaf, and I wouldn't get the bundt pan for the same reason. It might deform when it's full, leading to a deformed cake (gasp!) The last caveat is you need a good, sturdy sheet pan to bake it on, because it's not meant to sit on the grates of the oven (and it would be hard to put there anyway - slosh!)

But like I said, I love the stuff for baking. Easy to use, release, and clean. Speaking of easy to clean, I even have sili oven mitts, because you can rinse stuff off, or put them in the dishwasher!

Does anybody have experience with soft, floppy, silicone cookware? I saw some for cheap, and was *this* close to picking some up just to play with. It looks intriguing just from a novelty perspective, and the salesman was touting its never, never, never sticks properties.

FYI; I tried the mini silicone loaf pans that I picked up at a dollar store. I used them to bake some brownies, which turned out great! They smelled the house up of plastic the first time, but the brownies were fine, didn't affect their taste or smell. Now I am hunting the dollar stores for more silicone pans! I didn't have any guidelines for the baking times, but I haven't burned anything in them to date. If anyone knows about any specific guidelines that suggests a change in bake times for silicone pans, please post...my pans didn't come with any instructions. Thanks!

Use caution especially when removing silicone cookware from the oven. A pizza type paddle is often necessary to support the bottom of the vessel when it has a large or heavy cake, muffins or anything that is not fairly rigid. Cakes can crack as the silicone flexes, and you don't even want to know what can happen to a heavy New York Style cheese cake if you don't support the bottom well.

I have replaced almost all of my metal bakeware with silicone. This stuff is great! You don't get exactly the same browning as with metal, but I think it's just as crispy. I love the muffins without the muffin cups - they're crispy around the bottom, and you can deform the pan around them to get them out. I also bake all our bread in silicone loaf pans. This is great, because there again, you can bend the pan to get the bread out, so no more lost corners.

Another advantage is that I have no fewer than 8 pieces of it crammed into a little corner of a cabinet.

Three caveats: the larger (9x5) loaf pans will deform a little at the sides if they're full, so you get a more squat, wider loaf, and I wouldn't get the bundt pan for the same reason. It might deform when it's full, leading to a deformed cake (gasp!) The last caveat is you need a good, sturdy sheet pan to bake it on, because it's not meant to sit on the grates of the oven (and it would be hard to put there anyway - slosh!)

But like I said, I love the stuff for baking. Easy to use, release, and clean. Speaking of easy to clean, I even have sili oven mitts, because you can rinse stuff off, or put them in the dishwasher!

Thanks! I bought my shaped pans without any instructions available, and will now be able to use them! Your information is clear and enthusiastic. I looked on the net and this was the best coverage I found.
Kudos!

I would take any information in Cook's Illustrated with a massive grain of salt. I have never found them to be reliable.

I think they're a good source for cookware tests. Their recipes sometimes are lacking, though.

I've actually been very pleased with both their cookware recommendations AND their recipes. Their baking cookbook is one of the best learning tools for truly understanding the "why" of baking processes (not as much fun nor as scientific as Alton Brown's baking book, but much more extensive). All three of my "everyday" bread recipes and most of my favorite cookie recipes are from CI's books or mags. I don't agree with everything they say, and they sure do use alot of fat, but I always find them to be worth a look.

On the topic of silicone, CI's point is that the best browning (a crucial part of some baked goods) comes from dark metal pans, and you just can't get that from a silicone pan - at least until someone adds metal filings to the silicone....